Re: Gender and grammar

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Article #2992

#2992

From: Harlan Messinger
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 00:00

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Ian Molton <ian.molton@dtn.ntl.com> wrote in message
news:38222C51.1EF77A56@dtn.ntl.com...
> Harlan Messinger wrote:
> >
> > Kalen <paradox@intelligencia.com> wrote in message
> > news:3821EFE6.940B3968@intelligencia.com...
> > > "D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff" wrote:
> > > > A better question is "What purposes do these sorts of classes
serve?"
> > >
> > > And why did they call it "gender" (especially in languages where
> > > there are 12 of them!)
> >
> > Because the original meaning of "gender" wasn't "sex"! It comes from the
> > French "genre", meaning "kind", "type", or (English has borrowed the
word)
> > "genre".  It came into English with these meanings. It came to be used
as a
> > synonym for "sex", but also to describe classes of words belonging to a
> > language.
>
> forgive me for being stupid here but gender and genre are NOT the same
> word in my book...
>

Do you also not believe that "saint" and "sanctuary" come from the same
word? Or "hotel" and "host"?

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From: "Harlan Messinger" <zzzhmessinger@erols.com>
Subject: Re: Gender and grammar
Date: 1999/11/05
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